Richard: Bunny Warrior
Richard: Bunny Warrior is the 30th episode of ShapeTales. The story is based on the story of Richard from the Book of Judges, while the short is based on George Muller. Plot As the show opens on the forest, The Emotions Who Don't Do Nothing burst in to host the show out of boredom, overriding Jimmy and Alvin. After reluctantly giving in, Jimmy walks off (leaving Alvin, who is one of the Emotions), the Emotions read the letter, which asks, in essence, whether to trust Circle. The Captain, aka, Pa Circle, then tells the story of George Muller a man who "trusted Circle for everything." George Mueller The story is narrated by the Captain, as he tells it through the eyes of his ancestor Great-Grandfather Simon, a reporter for the Bristol Snoop, a tabloid-like newspaper. He goes to George Muller's orphanage and asks him non-sense questions ("Is it true you are running a school for alien dolphins?", "This is a turkey with the head of a cat") until he comes in with Muller to find that the orphanage is out of food and the orphans cannot eat breakfast the next day. They pray to Circle for food and the next day when Simon offers to go out and buy them food some friend of Muller's miraculously comes in and offers the children milk and bread. Richard: Bunny Warrior Beginning with a montage of floats, as a victory parade for conquering the Midianites, Richard (Alvin The Triangle) stops the parade to explain that the large amount of praise lavished on him was not his to take. He then tells the "true" account, in which he reluctantly chooses to defend his country against an undefeated army of over 30,000 excessively hairy rectangles, the Midianites, after an angel (Pa Circle) appears to him. Initially, he doesn't want to, and says that he's not a solider, that he's afraid of the dark and screams like a girl, to which the angel replies, "He (the Almighty) chose you", "to say the truth I'm afraid of the dark too," and "Put me in the dark and I scream like a girl too." Richard then asks for the miracle of a wet fleece and dry ground, which when the sign is complete, asks for another sign that the fleece be dry and the ground around drenched. This sign is completed too and Richard accepts his job. When Richard's sizable army is reduced to six carrots and six peas, he learns to trust Circle and is able to defeat the Midianites with horns and flashlights. Finishing on the countertop, the Emotions are confused about Richard's story as they did not know who he was (beyond their knowledge of his bibles in hotels). However, Jimmy comes on and acknowledges he put the story in when the Emotions seemed to be at a lack for inspiration. After congratulating the Emotions for a good job on the show, Qwerty gives a verse and the Captain declares his desire to make a Emotions Who Don't Do Nothing movie. Nobody is interested at first, and the show ends with the Captain saying he hopes he can get the funds necessary. Fun Facts Explanations * Pa Circle mentions about Richard leaving bibles in hotel rooms. He is probably referring to Richard's International, a evangelical Christian organization known for producing and giving free bibles. Trivia * The episode's working title was Richard and the Bunny of Scorn. * This marks as Brian Roberts' directorial debut. * Pa Circle is the only character in the episode to have a main role since he played both his great grandfather and the angel. On top of that, he also took over as host since he's part of the Emotions. * According to Brian and Tim, there were a few differences between the pre-production and the final version. ** There was a scene that Simon was going to place an ad in the newspaper to give help for George Mueller's orphanage, but Mueller feels upset about this and tells him that he's only asking for Circle's help. This was then removed due to it not being factual. ** Originally, the milk on the bottles were just going to be solid. However, the technicians went above and made it actual liquids inside. ** Originally, the scooters in the parade were going to be reused models of Alfred's from the previous episode. However, the modeler didn't get it and made a new one based on the concept art. ** Richard's brothers were going to be psychically bigger. But they changed it to make more funny like in Miss Georgia. * The doodle of the dinosaur on a spaceship on Simon's notebook was drawn by Paul Dobson from Arc Productions. * When this aired on Smile of a Child, they removed the George Mueller story and the Shapey Song. * This episode aired once on Qubo, as the religious references couldn't be removed because the episode would have no plot whatsoever. Although this episode was aired on some Christian channels as well as the other Season 3 episodes. * This is the only episode that didn't end with Jimmy and Alvin saying Circle Made You Special, and He Loves You Very Much. Since Pa Circle interrupted Jimmy and made him upset about when Pa is making a movie, Alvin did say it with Mr. Rick who was also voiced by Mike Vischer instead. Then Mike did his voices of Jimmy and Pa afterwards, then the credits roll. * This was the last episode to use the ShapeTales intro from 2004 to 2006. Remarks * Because both the George Mueller and Shapey Song segments were cut in the Smile of a Child broadcast, it makes the Emotions taking over sort of pointless, since they have more of a role telling about George Mueller. * The song Mueller and the children were singing was "His Eye Is on the Sparrow". But that wasn't written until after his death. Brian Roberts acknowledged this, but he states it's kept in because it feels an appropriate song about Circle. * This is one of the few times Annie doesn't wear glasses. Inside References * The piano George Mueller plays is the same one from the ice cream parlor. * The marching band music originated from Bully Trouble. * When Pa was reading the books for angels, you can see Hope on the front cover. * Richard was playing the ShapeTales Theme Song in his backyard. Fast Forward * Pa Circle mentions creating a movie based on The Emotions Who Don't Do Nothing, which nobody else is interested in. They ended up eating their words two years later.